If you would like to read all of Paul's prayer for the church in Ephesus then I would encourage you to read those first three chapters of Ephesians. Early in my ministry I committed these passages to memory. They gave me a vocabulary for the things that I had need of in my own life. What I'm discovering today is that if I want to walk in the fullness of God then I must understand the love of Christ and allow the eyes of my understanding to be enlightened to know the exceeding greatness of His power toward us. Why is this important? It's important because the love of God in Christ must be the lens through which we view one another and the rest of the world.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine through email where we discussed this important aspect of life. The necessity of having the proper lens through which we view/understand Scripture and/or the nature of God must be the finished work of Christ. The lens through which we view one another must be the love of God in Christ Jesus. If we are not able to see God through these lenses then we will be viewing Him in the wrong light. And if we are unable to see our neighbors through His love then we will never understand the greatness that God has placed in them.
Most of you know that I came from a very traditional church background. Much of my understanding of God, the Bible, the Church, and the World was shaped through this upbringing. While I am grateful for many of the things that I received in those formative years of life, I have had to radically reshape the way I see things. As I grew in my understanding of the love of God, the freedom we have in Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives (just to name a few), something had to give. There were just too many questions left unanswered. I continued to see things in the Bible that did not match up with how I was taught to see them. So I had to come to a conclusion: Either I would keep God in the box that He was given to me and see Him through that lens or I could let God out of the box and begin to see Him for who He really is. I'm glad that I let Him out!!!
Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I have a great respect for those who tried to model Jesus to me. I'm incredibly grateful for those who led me to Christ. They displayed His love to me. They cared for me. They were the ones that God used to bring me to salvation. I will always be grateful for that because I have seen God in them all. However, as I grew in my faith I knew that changes had to be made. I was in awe of the incredible love that Jesus displayed for the lost. I was blown away be the way the Holy Spirit would move in the book of Acts. I was continually challenged by Paul's presentation of grace in His writings and recognize that even today many of us just don't understand how AMAZING God's grace truly is. I mean...when you read the Bible do you see these things? Are you constantly challenged in your understanding of God and His nature? Is there anything about the life of Jesus that makes you question what you were taught to believe? I honestly think that God loves to bring us to the tipping point of our belief systems. He loves to question what we hold in theology but lack in experience because He wants us to enter into the fullness of who He is.
This is how we are strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man
This is how Christ dwells in our hearts through faith
This is how we become rooted and grounded in love
It happens when we begin to view EVERYTHING through His love and His finished work.
I pray that you will be challenged and that you will choose to change the lens through which you view everything. And I pray that you will know the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to His power at work in us.
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